Amends for All.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 137, 10 June 1911, Page 18

Amends for All.

I E. R. PUNSHON. I (Author of ''The Choice," "The Spin of the Coin," etc., etc.) i

SYXOrSIS OF EARLIER CIIAPTEUS. I I Joseph Green, a dangerous convict, has escaped from I'-n:-.:-..- Edward Thorold's motor-vat has It■ i. '.. i ».i. :.ud he helps | the fugitive ;■• <~ .-.- Wh.-u tbey ar>out of the d.'.: --■ - -- re. Ttvr. I.J tells Green to get oci •.:' ::-. -: em the convict becomes ~; I>r . i__ >,--:..,.y attacks Thorold with a k.i::Ile th'ea:cr.< :.-...: -vies* Thorold helps him further ie ■•... :<-:: ihe Mice how he has aire:-, iy :-.■ ■:. • ssjs;ed I'horold is ou an'import!!.: - »:.:. -ad must avoid delay 11-- lakes ilr-t nlviis with him. and they reach a :•:.--> aou<e'ou the Downs. Her- ThoroM ='-•> t:s ycung brother sleu. with a w-n;a:. - ;■:.-•: ■ grasped in one baud and a revive: i- th* other. Thorold is terribly upset, and swears ven-genn.-e iiL-uinst the woman who caused ins brother's death. Locked in one of the upgtair r..onis Green rinds the original of Hie photo- Joan Durand. lying unconscious. CHAPTER IV- i A DISCOVERY. i In blank amazement. Green hung doubtfuilv in the doorway, gaping with open mouth and staring eyes: and now and airain he glanced over his shoulder . as if he feared to see Thorold ascending I the stairs with his long stride to find , out what was delaying him. j -Why. he would "put her light out,"; he muttered, "so he would—soon as j look at her—lor', what a man." I He fell to rubbing his forehead with j the sleeve of his newly acquired coat. | Possessed as Creen was by fears fori himself and his liberty: and not perhaps much accustomed to bestow much j thought on anyone save himself, he yet shuddered beneath the mystery of this house, where a man lay dead below, clasping the portrait of a woman who lav unconscious above. He went a step or two nearer the bed and made out that she certainly still lived. Her pale beauty and the extraordinary nature of the whole affair touched" his heart with something like pity. "Poor thing." he muttered. "I wonder, if she done it. why she's been knocked about and locked up 'ere? If she didn't do it. then still why's she been knocked about and locked up "ere?" '"Green." came Thorold's deep voice from downstairs, "be quick—l want you." "Yes sir; yes sir: one moment, sir," cried Green in answer. He looked round wildly, and then not knowing in the least what to do, he went out of the room and shut and locked the door behind him. Putting the key in his pocket he ran down the stairs and met Thorold just coming up from the cellar. "I want your help," Thorold said shortly as he went into the room where his younger brother lay deadGreen followed him. and found that he had already done much. The dead youth had been laid upon a couch, and his body had been covered with a large white sheet. This had been a task the most dreadful that Thorold in all his adventurous and varied career had ever been called upon to perform. It was only now he realised how much he had loved this boy. whose end had been so lonely and so tragic. Thorold did not speak, ior it was not iis custom to use words needlessly, but his eyes were very terrible as he gazed down upon that dead young face, and then he drew from his pocket the photograph that the dead hand had held so lightly. To him that lovely girlish face was the countenance of a foul enchantress who had lured his loved young brother to the most terrible end imaginable, destroying life and honour alike. In silence he stood, brooding over the dead, brooding over the photograph, and his thoughts were heavy with sombre anticipations of the future. After a time he roused himself and; put his hand to his forehead. "Strange," he muttered: "strange, how my head does ache": and indeed it was | almost the .first time in his life he had ever had experience of such a thing as headache. I Underneath the couch on which he iad placed his brother's body he now arranged a number of pieces of dry wood. He piled these high and mixed with them all the inflammable material le could find. "Green," he said to the little convict, who was staring at these preparations with wild eyes of terror and amaze, "go down into the cellar. You will find a barrel there full of oil. Bring the oil up in a pail you will find standing there. Drench this wood and everything in the room thoroughly." "But—but—but—" stammered Green, and thought with horror of the unconscious girl locked in the roof above. "Oh, my God," he wailed, "what are you going to do?" "What is that to you?" asked Thorold angrily and suspiciously; "you go and do as you are told." With one wild look at him Green obeyed, for the terror of Thorold lay heavy on his soul. But as he descended the cellar steps he staggered, and once or twice he nearly fell. "Oh, lor," he muttered. "What must I do? Oh, lor." He reached the cellar, and seeing the barrel of oil had a fresh shock of fear, as though he had only just understood what was in contemplation. "Oh, my God." he groaned out, '"he must be going to burn the whole pla?e, and her. and all. Lor, mc, if I tell him, hell put her light' out. sure as late he will. 1 can see ; t m his eve . v I don't tell him. then she'll burn— what shall I do? what shall I do?" "Be quick, there." called Thorold's etern voice from above: "how much time do you think we have': Be quick, and do not let mc have to speak to you again." Green trembled and hurried, and for the next twenty minutes Thorold's stern voice drove him about the house like a whip. Thorold himself seem ed reluctant to enter again the room in which his brother, body lay, and he busied him- % self everywhere, though still watching Green to make certain that everything was done properly. To Thorold the roorc was dreadful; for the first time in hi< life he knew what fear was as he thou-jhi of it: for the first time in his life hi feared the loss of his self-control ii h. were to enter it again. And his Ilea. Continued to ache so terribly that a tune, he found himself hardly wnscioo. oi what he was doing. "lye pretty near emptied the oi barrel, sir ' said Green, morino- toward him quickly: "nnt excuse mc snvinl so

i with a return to his manner of imperious 1 and lofty pride. I "Well, I'm "eiping, ain't IV asked I Green sulkily. ' "Yes, true," admitted Thorold, as ii struck by this remark. "Well, then, it's largely because I do not know what else to do. The body must be disposed of, and al! traces of the crime hidden, for reasons which do not concern you. But 1 dare not bury the body, or it might be dug up at any time. I dare not take it away with mc, for fear of discovery. I choose, therefore, io destroy it by fire —by tire that is the cleanest of all destroyers. Xor is it fitting." he added, while his eyes flashed with a strange light, "that this place where my brother has been so foully murdered should remain in existence any longer. To destroy '■ it is the first step in my revenge," he 'muttered, and seemed to fall into a : strange and sombre meditation. But Green was thinking of that unconscious lovely girl locked in the room above. What would become ot her when this ii re tt -as started? j "Dare 1 try to save her?" he thought to himself. "Poor thing: but if I try ! it on. where do 1 come in? I'm sorry \ for her. but there ought to be something ! for mc in it. oen way or t'other." Thorold moved, and once again draw- ! ins the photograph from his pocket, locked at it with heavy, moody eyes. "Lor. sir." muttered Green, his per- : plexity urging him on till he took his courage in both hands and spoke. "Lor', i sir. you don't think as 'ow she done it, j ,ir?" "Aye?" said Thorold. "And — and —"' Green stammered, watching him askance and sideways, "you mean—mean—" "Aye." said Thorold again, and made the word sound like a terrible threat. , "Ah—well." Green muttered, as he thought of her lying swooning in the room above, "and she so pretty and all." "Pretty?" repeated Thorold, as if* greatly surprised, and he looked at the photograph again, his head slightly on one side. "Why, 1 suppose —-" he said slowly. "A devil's beauty, then," he concluded sharply after a momentary pause. "Ah." said Green, wisely, "I don't know , nothing about that, but 1 know a pretty girl when 1 sees one. Now, sir. If she was 'ere, sir. what would you do. sir, if she were 'ere this very minute, sir, and you knew it ?" "Why. then?" said Thorold, and hi 3 breast heaved with the violence of his emotion: "she should —burn." "Ah," said Green with a quick shudder, and yet with a look of cunning in his eyes, ''and supposing, sir, just by way of supposing, sir, as some one—as it might be mc or anyone —was to come to you, sir. and say as 'ow they could tell where she was. sir?" "What do you mean?" asked Thorold ' sharply. ; "Why, just what I says," answered , Green more boldly, the cunning, 'the avarice in his eyes shining out undis- . guised. "Supposing as a cove—as it might be mc or any one—come to you and says as 'ow he could tell you where she was. so as you put your 'and right ; oil 'er with no trouble, what would it be ' worth to this 'ere cove, sir? Fifty pounds or a 'undred. or what?" "My man," said Thorold. "let mc adi vise you not to attempt to meddle with , my concerns. It is not very safe to . interfere with mc." "Still," urged Green, and paused, torn between his hope of getting money out of Thorold. and his sympathy for the • terrible position of the unconscious girl above. , Thorold had turned away, and Green stood watching him. "There ought to be something in it for mc," he mused. "'l'm sorry for 'er, ' too. and she so pretty and all, but where do I come in? I don't see how I i can save her when he's so set on burn- > ing the place, and if I can't, I might as well 'aye some coin out of 'im." '■ Making up his mind he started after Thorold. who had just gone outside to see that his motor-ear was all ready for their start. ' "Beggin' your pardon, sir." he said, but Thorold turned on him in anger; his > moody thoughts, full of grief for the ' past and gloomy threat for the future, • stung intolerably by the little convict's 1 whining voice, that seemed to go right ' through his head like a knife. "Hold your tongue." "he said, "do you ! wish to make mc lose patience with you ?" ' Green shrank away trembling, his very soul scorched as it were beneath the ' other's fiery glance. 1 "Oh. what a man," he gasped as he scuttled hack into the house, utterly possessed by equal hate and fear; "well, ' now I will—and he can find it out if he likes. I'll risk it." J A moment later Thorold called to him . again. "What are you doing now?" he asked. "Only bringing up the rest of the oil, sir," Green answered, as he appeared at the top of the kitchen stairs with a ' full bucket in each hand. r "I thought you had finished," said Thorold, "but wait a moment." He went again into the room and ' agains tood in silence by his brother's j side. It was nearly twenty minutes . before lie came out again; and during all that time Green was busy, toiling '_ terribly, running with full and heavy buckets up the stairs to the room above . the drawing-room and down again to the , cellar, and then up again. He had just , returned down the stairs again when . Thorold at last came out into the hall. "It is strange how my head aches," ! he said: "I can hardly see." t "Is everything ready, sir?" Green l asked. "Best sit down and rest a 3 minute, sir; you're a bit overcome, sir." i- Thorold nodded and went and stood g outside, struggling for that self-control g he had never dreamed he could be so ii I near to losing. But. indeed, though is he thought himself a hard man, his it nature was in its essence tender and ie emotional: and now it had been stirred ie to its very depths by such a grief as he id *iad never 'thought to endure, He it stood silently, impassive, immobile in as the sun. It was as though a re-action had overtaken him and his thoucrhts )il were wandering: as though his smoulderis ing rage and the anguish of his grief so o. together obsessed him that lg knew what was happening around hiui. ?" His tierce, vivid eyes were dull; and he n- never s?.w how busily Green's active t. little figure skipped" up and dowu ■■« | in the house behind him. Green noticed i," this absorption, and muttered to himts self: "I don't believe he sees nothing: W. 1; if I had known he was going to he like this I might have risked trying to bring d, down;, but she's.-a-.fgo.QOigL*H%_^

hardly think I could have carried her." Thorold moved, and seemed to throw off the heavy thoughts that had held him in thralL He came into the house. "Is everything ready?" he asked. "Everything," Green answered; "and if I was you. sir. I should say that as soon as it's on fire and we've seen it take good hold, we had better clear off as fast as we can. That there Inspector Lock has seen you "' "True," said Thorold with unusual docility: "how strange my head feels; yes, we had better be off quickly, for if the fire does attract anyone and we are seen near, it might be awkward. Put a light to it." Green struck a match and obeyed. The little heap of chips flared up at once. The flames seemed to run like a snako across the oil-soaked carpet. A dense and stifling vapour filled the room. Green shut the door hurriedly. "That'll blaze like old boots." he said; "hadn't we better be off, sir?" Thorold nodded, and with his hand still up to his forehead accompanied Green out of the house. Already smoke was issuing from door and window, and rising like a blue, ominous banner of destruction in the calm, quiet air. "It's took a good 'old. sir," said Green, quietly getting into the motor-car as if he had a right to a place in it. "In a couple of hours there won't be no more nor a 'cap of ashes left 'ere. sir." Thorold took his seat, lie pave one look at the house from which the blue, curling smoke was rising in thin wisps of vapour, and then like a man in a dream he started the. engine and drove a way. "All, there's more flame now," said Green; "more flame and less smoke." Thorold did not answer, but his manner seemed to become more natural. Tt was as though he were fifrhtmg with more success against the heavy cloud that had fallen on him; the vivid fierceness crept back into his dull eye and he no longer felt such an intense bewildering pain in his head. (To be continued daily.)